What techniques does 'KONY 2012' use to engage the audience?

The text KONY 2012 uses a wide range of techniques to engage the audience. One technique that is used throughout this text is the use of pronouns such as ‘us’ and we’ to create a direct mode of address which makes the audience feel as if the narrator is speaking to them. An example of this can be seen during the first 30 seconds where he says, ‘our time’. This engages the audience because it creates a sense of responsibility and social solidarity which this text manipulates to get a donation. This direct mode of address also makes this text very personal and this is further accomplished when he shows his wife giving birth to his son on the operating table from a point of view shot. This is a very personal moment that this narrator has chosen to share because this shows that the narrator is a family man creating a sense of trust between the audience and narrator, which also engages them. This also enables the audience to identify with the narrator, fulfilling the audiences uses and gratifications, a theory suggested by Katz and Blumler.

The use of dramatic slow non diegetic sounds also engages the audience by creating what the theorist Barthes described and ‘engima codes’. These enigma codes engage the audience by making them ask themselves questions regarding the text. This non diegetic music is being played parallel to images and a voice over that are also creating enigma codes for the audience. The voice over is of an American male and therefore perhaps a voice that the audience can trust.

This text also uses narrative theory suggested by Todorov. It begins in equilbirum with shots of the narrator playing with his son and being generally happy. The text then goes into disequilibrium showing distressing scenes with slow sad non diegetic music. The text does not really go back into disequilibrium, but instead appeals to the Global village to help make their be a positive outcome. This is a clever techniques because it makes the audience part of the solution and creates a sense of unity which in turn, engages the audience.